Adjustable guide fence construction for table saw



Dec. 27, 1960 w. L. GASKELL ADJUSTABLE GUIDE FENCE CONSTRUCTION FOR TABLE sAw 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 11, 1957 42%', LOS,

INVENT OR.

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ADJUSTABLE GUIDE FENCE CONSTRUCTION FOR TABLE SAW Filed June 11, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. M/df'r 'aseZ E E E- ADJUSTABLE GUIDE FENCE CONSTRUCTION FOR TABLE SAW Walter L. Gaslrell, Ypsilanti, Mich., assigner to King- Seeley Corporation, Ann Arbor, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Filed lune 11, 1957, Ser. No. 664,940

2 Claims. (Cl. 143-174) This invention relates to wood Working tools and, particularly to Work guide fences that may be used for arbor saws. This application is a continuation-impart of my co-pending application Serial No. 408,416, led February 5, 1954, and issued September 17, 1957, as Patent No. 2,806,493.

lt is an object of this invention to provide an improvement in the construction shown in my copending case, whereby canting or misalignments of the fence bar are prevented.

A further object is to provide a different type of traverse actuator for the fence construction of the type shown in my copending case.

lt is also an object of my invention to provide a simplilied fence construction of the type shown in my copending case, which also includes means for adjusting the component parts of the fence at assembly, thereby minimizing the necessity of close tolerances in the manufacturing operation.

A preferred form of my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a vertical cross section, partly broken away, through an embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan View of the construction shown in Figure 1;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation taken from the right of Figure 1;

Fig. 4 is a plan View in detail of the fence slide that is attached to the front end of the fence bar;

Fig. 5 is a bottom plan View of the fence slide shown in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a section taken along the line 6 6 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 is a section taken along the line 7-7 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 8 is a side elevation of a bushing for the pinion shaft; and

Fig. 9 is an end view of the bushing of Fig. 8 taken from the right thereof.

The fence construction 1 is `employed with a suitable Work table indicated at 3, which may be of any desired construction, such as shown in my copending case mentioned above, in my Patent No. 2,677,400, issued May 4, 1954, and in my copending case, Serial No. 436,450, tiled lune 14, 1954, now Patent No. 2,873,773. The table 3 has a front edge or face 5 and a rear face 7. Attached to but spaced from the front face 5 is a rail or slide bar 9 which is used to support the front end of the fence construction 1. Attached to the rear face 7 is a rail or slide bar 11 which supports the rear end of the fence construction 1. As is typical in fence and table assemblies, the fence construction 1 can be moved on the slides 9 and 11 transversely of its length and can be clamped in any suitable or desired position to the front and rear faces 5 and 7 by a clamping mechanism which is operated by the lever 13.

The fence construction 1 includes as its central element, an elongated rectangular fence bar 15. This bar is hollow and has at straight sides which are intended to be precisely perpendicular to the top surface 17 of the table nited States Patent RCC 3. The inside of the bar 1S is reinforced by suitable ribs 19 which are designed so that they can be integrally cast with the fence bar. The front end of the fence bar is attached to a fence slide 21 (Figs. 4-6) by means of a pair of screws or bolts 23 and 25. It is the fence slide 21 which slidably supports the fence 1 on the bar 9'. The rear end of the fence bar 15 carries a roller 27 which rolls back and forth on the top face of the bar 11. The roller is carried by one leg of an L-shaped cantilever spring 31. The front end of the cantilever spring 311 is offset at 33 and attached by means of a screw 35 to a rib section 37 of the fence bar 15. The vertical spacing of the axis of the roller 27 relative to the bottom of the fence bar 15 can be adjusted by a second screw 39' that is threaded into the bottom of the section 37.

The means for clamping the fence bar 15 to the front and rear faces 5 and 7 includes a movable shoe or clamp member 41 which is pivoted on a transverse pin 43 in a bifurcated section 4S at the rear end of the fence. The clamp member 41 is urged to a nonclamping position, i.e., in a clockwise direction about pivot 43, by an L-shaped cantilever spring 47, one leg of which bears upon the inner surface of the member 41 and the other leg of which is attached to the bottom of the section 37 by the aforementioned screws 35 and 39.

The member d1 is pivoted in a counterclockwise direction so that the toe thereof engages the rail 11 by means of a push rod 49. rfhe push rod is slidably mounted in suitable openings 511 in the fence bar 15 and its rear end engages a set screw 53 which is adjustably threaded in the top of the member 41. The push rod 49 is moved endwise by the cam shaped surface 55, protected by a snapped in and screwed on wear plate 57 on the lever 13. The lever 13 is pivoted on a pin 59 that iits between suitable ears 6d formed integrally with the fence bar 15 and as it moves the cam will cause the rod 49 to force the toe of the member i1 tightly against slide 11, the reaction to this force causing a front face 61 of the front fence slide 21 to abut tightly against the face 5.

The front rail 9' is spaced from the front face S by suitable sleeves or bushings 63. Since these are spaced from each other, there will be gap between the rail 9 and the face 5 which will permit sawdust to drop through rather than clog the slide, the shape of the rail 9 facilitating this. The rail 9 has a top inclined face 65 which serves as the support surface for the weight of the front end of the fence 1. This surface has a groove extending the full length thereof and tted in the groove is a small nylon rod 67 which projects slightly above the surface 65 and contacts the bottom of the slide 21 and actually bears the weight of the mechanism. The fence rail 9 has a rear face 69 which joins the bottom rear edge of the inclined surface 65. Fitted over ythe inclined surface 65 and behind the `sluface 69 is a slide projection 70 (Figs. 6 and 7) that is formed integrally on the bottom of the fence slide 21. ri'his projection includes a bottom lip 71 that engages behind the face 69* and inclined surface 73 which rides on the nylong rod 67. The front face 61 of the slide 21 bears against the front face 5 of the table when the aforementioned surfaces 71 and 73 are in close juxtaposition with the adjacent surfaces of the fence rail 9. inasmuch as the slide projection 76 on the member 2,1 extends the full width thereof and lits closely between faces 5 and 69 it will hold the bar in close alignment so that it cannot be readily tilted or canted about a vertical axis. ln other words, these parts will act to hold the fence bar in close parallelism with the arbor saw blade (not shown).

The fence rail 9 has a top surface 77 which is notched out at 79 to receive a tape or scale 81 which will indicate in inches and fractions thereof the exact position of the fence, the scale containing opposite running indicia 3 (such as also shown in my copending application Ser. No. 408,416, now Patent No. 2,806,493), which are read through openings 83 in the top flange 85 of the fence slide 21 by way of oppositely facing pointers 87 vand 87'.

The fence slide 211 is, as previously mentioned, attached to the fence bar by the threaded elements 23 and 25. These are spaced far apart and thus provide a sturdy, substantial arrangement which resists misalignments. In order to provide a means to square up the fence bar 15 with the slide 21 at assembly, the countersunl; screw 23- is used as a pivot about which the two parts can be slightly rotated. This rotation or adjustment is accommodated by an enlarged opening 89 through which the bolt 25 extends. The oversize of the opening 85 will permit adjustments of the slide 21 relative to the bar 15 until the bolt is tightly threaded in place. Y A pinion arrangement is provided so that the fence construction 1 can be manually adjusted transversely of its length across the surface 17 of the table 3. This mechanism 911 is carried by a vertical wall 93 on the bottom of the slide 21. This wall has a circular opening 95 in which a bushing 97 is iitted. This bushing has a V-shaped circumferential groove which receives the point on a set screw 99 so that the axial position of the bushing can be fixed. The bushing is of a unique construction in that it has a circular opening 101 extending through it which s offset from the center of the opening 95. It is the opening 101 which supports a pinion shaft 103 carrying the pinion 105 at its rear end. It will be seen that by rotating the bushing 97 in its support opening 95 the vertical location of the axis of shaft 103 can be adjusted. This adjustment will facilitate proper meshing of the gear 105 with the teeth formed on the bottom edge of a rack plate 107 that is bolted against the rearwardly facing surface of the front wall of the rail 9. Bolts and screws 109 can be used to commonly attach the rack bar to the fence rail 9 and the fence rail and spacers 63 to the table 3. The bushing 97 is adjusted rotatably in its opening 95 by means of a knurled section 111 which can be grasped by the user of the table and fence construction, after he has loosened the set screw 99, to properly locate the pinion 105.

The front end of the pinion shaft 103 is received in an aperture 113 in a knurled handle 115 and is fixed therein by a set screw 117. A coil spring 119 in the aperture 113 urges the parts to a position in which the pinion 105 is disengaged from the rack bar 107.- In operation, rotation of the handle 115 will cause the teeth of the gear 105 to run in the teeth on the bottom of rack 107 thus moving the entire fence construction 1 along the length of the fence rails 9 and 11. During this movement, the weight of the front end of the fence will be borne by the nylon rod 69 in a substantially friction-free manner. The weight of the rear end of the fence, bar 15 will be carried by the roller 27 running along the top edge of the fence rail 11. Misalignment due to the application of force in the front end of the fence is avoided because the slide projection 70 at the bottom of the slide 21 fits between the faces 5 and 69. The bar is clamped in a given position by movement of the lever 13 to the position shown wherein the push rod 49 will cause the shoe 41 to engage the back of the table 3 and the surface 6-1 to engage the front of the table 3. The fence can be simply removed from the table by moving the lever 13 so as to loosen the shoe 41 and then lifting it directly upwardly from the trough or V-shaped support provided by the surface and the front face 5 of the table 3.

It will be appreciated that modiiications in the construction specifically illustrated and described can be made without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim: v

1. In a fence construction for a table having a vertical face and a horizontal working surface, a fence rail attached to said vertical face and providing a vertical surface spaced from said vertical face and an inclined surface extending upwardly and away from said vertical surface to form a guideway open on top and extending parallel to said vertical face, a fence bar extending across said horizontal working surface and having a downwardly projecting slide portion including spaced vertical sections to engage said vertical face and vertical surface and an inclined section to ride on said inclined surface, said slide portion being vertically liftable from said open top guideway movable means in the rear end of the fence for engagement with another Vertical face on the table, means operative upon said member for clamping the fence to said vertical table faces.

2. In a fence bar construction for a table having a ver` tical face, a guide bar having a vertical surface and an inclined face extending upwardly and outwardly from said Vertical surface, means attaching said guide bar in spaced relation to said vertical face so that there is clearance between the vertical face of the table and the vertical surface of the guide bar, said vertical face and guide bar being open on top, a fence bar including a slide having a tapered projection fitting on said inclined surface and engageable with said vertical face and vertical surface and vertically liftable from the guide bar.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 221,804 Gordon Nov. 18, 1879 1,815,037 DeWalt July 21, 1931 2,166,703 Boice July 18, 1939 2,521,302 Mussleman Sept. 5, 1950 2,563,370 Reese Aug. 7, 1951 2,630,845 Eschenburg Mar. l0, 1953 2,677,400 Gaskell May 4, 1954 2,678,016 Karsoe May 4, 1954r 2,690,360 Young Sept. 2S, 1954 2,740,437 Odlum et al Apr. 3, 1956 2,754,859 Ocenasek July 17, 1956 2,759,773 Wilmer et a1 Aug. 21, 1956 2,806,493 Gaskell Sept. 17, 1957 

